Prospective Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) New Taipei City mayoral candidates should make clear their stance on whether they would issue a permit for a new Shenao Power Plant in the city’s Rueifang District (瑞芳) to burn coal, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said yesterday.
All DPP members who are considering running for New Taipei City mayor should publicly declare their stance on the issue, KMT caucus secretary-general Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan.
Lee’s comments echoed remarks by New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), who yesterday said that although the project last week passed an environmental impact assessment (EIA), he would not give the plant a permit to burn coal.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
As the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (環境影響評估法) is expected to be amended in three months to stiffen the EIA system, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) should wait until then to resubmit data on the plant to see whether its emissions can stand up to the test of new environmental standards, Lee said.
She urged the ministry and Taipower not to submit compensatory data on the plant’s future operations as requested by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) following last week’s review.
KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) said that in 2010, EPA Deputy Minister Thomas Chan (詹順貴), who was working as a lawyer at the time, won a lawsuit against the government when he represented residents whose homes were torn down by the Miaoli County Government to make space for the Hsinchu Science Park expansion plan.
Chan on Wednesday said that he would not award official papers documenting the approval of the Shenao project until the Bureau of Energy clarifies its energy policy, Chen said.
This offers Chan a perfect opportunity to “right his wrong” for casting the deciding vote during the environmental review that approved the project, Chen added.
The Shenao Power Plant, built in 1957, began operations in 1960.
It was shuttered in 2007 and then demolished.
Taipower wants to build a new plant on the same site, equipped with ultra-supercritical steam generators, and commence operations in 2025.
During a radio interview on Wednesday Chan asked Taipower, the ministry and the energy bureau whether it was worth spending NT$100 billion (US$3.4 billion) to build the plant, which would boost the nation’s energy reserves by just 0.1 percent, KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) said.
Chan’s doubts have only made DPP’s energy policy to cut coal-fired power generation from 50 to 30 percent by 2025 more confusing, she said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should explain to society how her energy policy would work, she said.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
RSS